Home again and glad of it: up and back in one day is a long haul. Our neighbor was kind enough to let the dogs out twice and feed them, though one was on strike and nearly refused to go out till we got back. They sure don't like it when we leave.
All kinds of food gifts have to go straight to my church or maybe one of the local nursing homes. "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here!" Not that I didn't appreciate the food gifts enormously, but in the real world I can fit a couple of bites of each into any fathomable food budget, and the rest need to do their excellent work under another roof.
At Christmas dinner, two of my young male relatives admitted to weeping during the screening of the new Star Wars epic. So OK, OK, I'll go see it. Here is how Ken Burns would tell the story of "Star Wars."
One of my young male relatives wept after it was over, out of disappointment with it. His hopes were very high, however, and there was some really slapdash work in places.
ReplyDeleteAm sending many food items to work with the wife today, for a similar distribution. Our dog wasn't happy to have us gone either. He sure was happy to see us come back!
I watched some data and analyzed the SW movie 7. It's basically JJ Abram's reverse setup, compared to George Lucas. Completely different methodology.
ReplyDeleteUnlike 1-2, I actually understood the plot and heard most of the English sentences.
People were commenting on Star Wars vs George Lucas before, so JJ Abram's directorship is a good comparison tool. I heard the Clone Wars episodic tv animated series is also popular, which Lucas didn't touch except as an Executive Producer in charge of how many episodes are funded. The writer and director were other people, as well as the producer.
One of my young male relatives wept after it was over, out of disappointment with it. His hopes were very high, however, and there was some really slapdash work in places.
ReplyDeleteSounds complicated. Given the number of years and negative feedback from 1-3 episodes movies of SW, I surmise that the emotions are a lot more complicated than disappointment.
For me, I didn't particularly invest anything into Star Wars. My standard for Hollywood and George Lucas' Star Wars must be so low, that JJ Abrams would have had to deliberately sabotage his movie to go lower than my expectations. What he did produce was interesting, at least, and I can see the "fan service" so to speak, with the various plot backs. It really does feel like a sequel, or at least like what the Original movies 4-6 might have felt like to people who first watched it.
A friend my age, who's more likely to react as I would, thought it wasn't too bad, but she did think it was a little self-conscious or arch in places.
ReplyDeleteMovie 7, tried to encapsulate many emotions and scenes from New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and the Last Jedi all in one. That kind of framework echo is intentional, but it does cut down on some of the originality and flow.
ReplyDeleteThe actors were also living in their own conscious fandom and had to try to keep it from jumping into their professional lives.
They utilized European two handed longsword techniques. Which was a distinct visual departure, and the actors had physical swords, of a kind, to practice on stage with. A lot of props became physical, such as the Falcon, with the kind of up scale that wasn't feasible back in the day.
From what I've seen of the technical specs, the Tie Fighter original, was too small to house two man seats, especially with the model they presented on screen. They really reduced the number of ships on screen to the classic and signature symbols, Tie Fighter vs X Wing. The TIE bomber would have been better for the two man turret setup.
Some of the plot arcs also seemed to have been missing, instead it revolved around the actor's own pov which wasn't necessarily the audience's pov. This is in comparison with the wooden, no expression, syndrome of the 1-3 movies. The actors back then was starring at a blue or green room. Only the director could see the background and foreground CGI pics.